Quality Meat Scotland stand at Anuga
The demand is there for Scottish red meat, as shown by the amount of people visiting the Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) stand at Anuga, but supplies were holding the sector back.听
That was the message from Kate Rowell, chair at QMS, speaking at the event.听
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"It is really disappointing as a farmer myself, to hear that this demand is there and that the only thing stopping us from growing is the number of cattle that we have got.听
"You can put a cow on today, you are not going to get anything back from it for two, three years by the time it has had its calves. So, farmers need to know that long term demand is there, so they have got the confidence to put extra cows on now."听
QMS showcased high-end Scottish produce with aims of attracting buyers ready to pay premium prices. 听
Ms Rowell says the problem of carcass balance also needs to be focused on when trying to find buyers. 听
"For a lot of the processors, they need markets for every single part of the carcass, not just the stakes and the roasts and things that we think about first," she said. 听
"So, a lot of what they are doing is trying to balance that carcass and find lots of different customers who will take more pieces of it and that is how they make a profit and that is how that then gets passed back down to farmers."听
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QMS's 'Meating Our Potential' partnership campaign with the Scottish Red Meat Resilience Group is about giving producers the tools to increase productivity and profitability, build confidence in the sector, and the future of the听red meat supply chain.听
Click the link to find out more.
